Exhibit 811 – The two smashed cell phones (plus Dun Meng’s debit card) discovered near the boat in which Dzhokhar was found. On top is the black iPhone 5, and on the bottom, the separated front and back of a white iPhone 4S.

Foreword

This series has been almost two years in the making. At first, I intended the information and analysis in this and subsequent posts to make up the final installment of my work on the murder of Officer Sean Collier. However, once I found a thread and pulled, more and more unraveled, in oftentimes shocking and confusing ways. I realized the implications didn’t only effect the nature of the murder of Officer Collier, but the entire bombing case at large. So I decided to hold off reporting, keep investigating, and hope I could put it all together later.

The time for that is now. Since October of 2015 I have been collecting dozens of pieces, trying to assemble them into a bigger picture. Unfortunately, as anyone with an investigative nature may note, rarely are there smoking guns to be found — instead, there are a lot of little things that don’t add up. With the current evidence available about the case, I have found a number of these anomalies, and have been trying to use them to rethink the narrative of the entire Marathon bombing, from the events on Boylston Street on April 15, 2013, to the night of Sean Collier’s murder and the carjacking of Dun Meng three days later. What will follow today and in the coming installments is my attempt to reconstruct the story using the evidence I have, as well as my previous body of work as a foundation for how I came to these conclusions.

What is an alibi defense, and does Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have one in regards to the charges for which he was convicted? Attorney Tom Frizzell returns to break down trial transcripts and help Heather determine whether Dzhokhar was involved with gathering the bomb-making materials that were used in the Boston Marathon bombing. Despite what was reported in the media, the information on the record is far more exculpatory than one might expect.

In the final installment of our historical series, Eric Bowsfield joins Heather to talk about the history and evolution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s home country, Chechnya. The region and its people have a fascinating but tragic past, facing centuries of violence and oppression at the hands of the Russian government. Together we navigate the hallmarks of imperialism, Russia’s conquest of the Caucasus, stereotypes of the Chechen ethnicity, and how all of this was used by the prosecutors against Dzhokhar at trial.

Eric Bowsfield returns to help Heather hash out the issue of Islamophobia and how it affected the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. We discuss the basics of Islam as a religion, the definition of Islamophobia, and the difference between Islamism and Jihadism. Then, we break down the academic career of Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a top aide to President Trump with a history of being an Islamophobe, an anti-Semite, a member of a pro-Nazi group — and an expert witness for the prosecution in Dzhokhar’s case.

Historian and fellow investigator Eric Bowsfield joins Heather to talk about historiography. We discuss how the discipline gives us the tools to study the Marathon Bombing and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s court case as a historical event. We also share our own firsthand knowledge of living through the bombing and the lockdown of Boston four days later, demonstrating how we ourselves are primary sources of these moments in history.

Just putting out a quick post in case you missed my announcements on Twitter and Facebook: on Saturday night I was featured as a guest on the Boston radio show The Young Jurks.

You can listen to the interview archived on Facebook by clicking the image below (I could not for the life of me get the embed option to work with Facebook video, sorry):

Thanks very much to host Mike and the whole crew for such a thoughtful conversation! I hope it sheds light on the details of the court case and Dzhokhar’s chances on appeal. We also discuss some of the behind the scenes stuff with my blog and podcast and a bit about what readers/listeners can expect coming up.

You can also check out The Young Jurks on WEMF Radio and all the usual podcast sites, including iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and IHeartRadio.

Attorney Tom Frizzell returns to dive into submitted questions about the Boston Marathon bombing and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s case. He and Heather sink their teeth into constitutional law as they tackle the impact the case has had on the American legal system, and discuss how many times Dzhokhar may have had his constitutional rights violated.